In attempting to combat on-campus drinking, the Policy Alternatives Community Education Coalition may possibly recommend the university notify students’ parents about alcohol-related violations. Other initiatives include limiting late-night drink specials and addressing house party problems.
PACE staff members are still debating the specific action they plan to take, especially because of the controversial nature of the parental-notification initiative.
Sudi Ceglarek, PACE’s project coordinator, said few universities use the parental notification system for alcohol violations.
“This is uncharted territory for most universities,” Ceglarek said. “It will be a long investigation, and there are no policies coming down the line yet.”
If PACE does confirm a parental notification initiative, they will bring their recommendation to UW chancellor John Wiley.
Susan Crowley, PACE’s project director, said there are many issues involved in the potential parental notification system.
“What circumstances parents should know and whether there is a role for parents once students get to campus are areas we should explore,” Crowley said. “We have reached no conclusions yet.”
Furthermore, PACE has been at the forefront of the continuing movement to ban drink specials in the past year.
“We’ve worked hard to pull together information on how drink specials correlate with binge-drinking,” Crowley said.
Last May, PACE conducted studies linking alcohol-related violations to drink specials. They found that the 600, 700 and 800 blocks of State, University and Johnson streets had the highest concentrations of drink specials and alcohol-related violations.
PACE is hosting a public forum in October to discuss its goals and listen to student input. PACE staff also want to address the dangers of house parties and to support entertainment venues for students of all ages.
Ceglarek said the PACE staff is hoping to work with larger non-university venues in the future.
“We are working with local bars to create other kinds of alternatives,” she said.
Most of the responsibility for organizing alternative entertainment shifted last January to UW’s Unions.
Marc Kennedy, the Union publicist, said he cooperates with UW and PACE to create alternatives to house parties. He cited Laugh Lines Comedy Club at the Orpheum, a new event this year, as an example.
“Since the Union was already putting on about 1,000 events a year, we were given the responsibility to publicize events and work as a liaison,” Kennedy said.
Crowley said she wants to unify conflicting alcohol-related messages sent to students and publicize the consequences of high-risk drinking.
“We want to pool the dean of students and police perspectives to make them consistent, to make sure we’re sending the right messages,” Crowley said. “Feedback from students today is a mixed-bag; some students see no significant consequences for high-risk drinking.”
PACE, part of a 10-university network, recently received a four-year grant renewal of $480,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to continue its work with UW.
